Beautiful India

How Sathya Sai Baba Materializes And Brings Forth Lingas From His Mouth

During the festival of Maha Shivaratri, the festival dedicated to the worship of Lord Shiva, Sathya Sai Baba usually performs the sacred miracle of Lingodbhavam, the emergence of the Linga (an ellipsoid object symbolizing divinity) from Him. Howard Murphet, who had the privilege of witnessing the event from close quarters, gives a detailed account of this awe-inspiring miracle in his book “Sai Baba: Man of Miracles” thus:

I had been told that every year, one or more Shivalingams have materialised in Sathya Sai Baba’s body at this sacred period of Shivaratri. He ejects the lingams through His mouth for all to observe. They are always hard, being made of crystal clear or coloured stone and sometimes of metals like gold or silver.

At six o’clock Sai Baba, accompanied by a small group of disciples, came onto the Shanti Vedika and soon after that the speeches began. It was about eight-thirty, powerful electric lights illuminating the group on the platform, when Sai Baba rose to His feet. First He sang a sacred song in His sweet celestial voice that touches the heart. Then He began His discourse speaking, as He always does on such public occasions, in the Telugu tongue.

On the platform Mr. Kasturi was busy making notes of the address which would be published later in both Telugu and English. Sai Baba’s eloquence had been flowing in a steady stream for some half-hour when suddenly His voice broke. He tried again but only a husky squeak came. Bhajan leaders among the devotees, knowing what was happening, immediately gave voice to a well-known bhajan and then the great crowd joined in.

Baba sat down and drank from a flask of water. Several times He tried to sing, but it was impossible. Now He began to show signs of real pain. He twisted and turned, placed His hand on His chest, buried His head in His hands, plucked at His hair. Then He sipped some more water and tried to smile reassuringly at the crowd.

Some men around me were weeping unashamedly and I myself felt a flow of tenderness towards the being suffering there before us. I could not grasp the full significance of the event that caused the agony, nor perhaps could most of the great crowd watching, but to understand a thing with the mind is one matter and to feel its meaning in the bones and blood is another. Inwardly I felt that I was sitting at the very heart of something profoundly significant to mankind.

So, instead of blurring my eyes with the tears of sympathy, I kept them fixed on Baba’s mouth; my whole attention was glued to that point so that I would not miss the exit of the lingam.

After about twenty minutes, I was rewarded. I saw a flash of green light shoot from His mouth and with it an object, which He caught in His hands cupped below. Immediately, He held the object high between His thumb and forefinger so that all could see it.

A breath of profound joy passed through the crowd. It was a beautiful green lingam, and certainly much bigger than any ordinary man could bring up through his throat. Sai Baba placed it on the top of a large torch so that the light shone through its glowing emerald-like translucency. Then, leaving it there, He retired from the scene.

Mr. Kasturi, who had been present on the platform of the Shanti Vedika when it was produced, described it thus later, in print: “An emerald lingam, three inches high and fixed on a pedestal five inches broad that had formed itself in Him (Baba), emerged from his mouth to the unspeakable joy and relief of the huge gathering.”